Investigation of biofilm production and icaA and icaD genes in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from heifers and cows with mastitis

Biofilm formation and antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus are important virulence factors in cases of mastitis in dairy cows. However, few studies have investigated mastitis strains isolated from heifers. Within this context, the objective of the present study was to investigate biofilm formation on Congo red agar, the presence of the icaA and icaD genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the percentage of in vitro antimicrobial resistance of 110 S. aureus isolates from mammary gland secretions of heifers and cows with mastitis. PCR detected the icaA and icaD genes in 98% and 100% of isolates, respectively. However, only 55.5% of all isolates produced a biofilm on Congo red agar. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that 47.0% of isolates from heifers and 70.4% of isolates from cows were resistant to at least one of the antimicrobial agents tested. Resistance to penicillin and/or ampicillin was the most frequent (44.5%). These results indicate the need to implement prophylactic and control measures of mastitis for heifers. Heifers and cows can carry resistant strains with the capacity of biofilm production, a fact representing a threat to public health and animal well‐being and generating losses to dairy farmers.     

贵州某野生动物园长臂猿流感病毒、支原体及巴氏杆菌混合感染的诊治

为弄清贵州某野生动物园长臂猿死亡的原因,本试验采用流行病学调查、临床症状观察、病理剖检诊断和RT-PCR检测确诊等方法,对该野生动物园发病长臂猿进行了诊断。试验结果显示,流行病学调查、剖检病理初步诊断该野生动物园长臂猿疑似流感病毒、支原体和细菌混合感染,RT-PCR/PCR检测确诊发病长臂猿为流感病毒、支原体混合感染,细菌分离培养、生化特性鉴定和动物致病性试验确诊为多杀性巴氏杆菌感染。结果表明造成该野生动物园长臂猿发病死亡的原因为流感病毒、支原体和多杀性巴氏杆菌混合感染。根据诊断及药敏试验结果,制定出了免疫预防及治疗措施。     

Isolation,Identification and Multidrug-resistant Analysis of the New Sequence Type ST989 Strain of Enterococcus faecium

Gram-positive cocci were isolated from half a month diseased lambs with a fatal infection in a sheep farm in Minhe county, Qinghai province.The clinical symptoms observed were drooping, reduced feed intake, emaciated and fever.The infected lambs died several hours after the disease been observed.Necropsy of two dying lambs revealed that for one lamb, the liver was enlarged and capsule of the liver dropped, and other organs had no obvious changes;For the other one, the organs had no obvious changes.After gram staining, gram-positive cocci were observed from all the samples.Partial Tuf gene sequences of these isolates were amplified and sequenced for species identification, BLASTn conparison result revealed that they had the highest sequence similarity with that of Enterococcus faecium (E.faecium) AUS0085 (99.8%), we thus primarily confirmed that these strains belonged to E.faecium.Antimicrobial susceptibility test indicated that these strains could be divided into two classes.Class 1 was resistant to β-lactams, aminoglycosides, macrolides, tetracyclines, quinolones, rifamycins, lincomycin and clindamycin;Susceptible to chloromycetin and vancomycin.Class 2 was resistant to β-lactams, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, quinolones, rifamycins;Intermediate resistance to erythromycin and roxithromycin;But susceptible to clarithromycin, azithromycin, clindamycin, lincomycin, chloromycetin and vancomycin.Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) based on seven housekeeping genes for E.faecium revealed that E.faecium lby1 strain in class 1 and E.faecium lbg3 strain in class 2 were defined as a new sequence type ST989.Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed the representative strain of these isolates, E.faecium lbg3, was clustered together with E.faecium ST468.The pathogenicity test revealed that E.faecium lby1 and lbg3 strains both had pathogenicity.     

Pathogen Analysis of Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex

To investigate the pathogen of bovine respiratory disease complex (BRDC) of a dairy farm in Guangxi, a strain of Mycoplasma and a strain of gram-negative pathogenic bacterium were isolated and identified by the means of field surveys, clinic observation, pathological examination, isolation studies and so on.Treatments were taken according to drug sensitivity test results.The Mycoplasma strain, growing on PPLO medium, formed typical "fried egg" colonies.A 448 bp of oppF fragment was amplified by PCR from the strain and had 98.4% nucleotide identity with Mycoplasma bovis reference isolate PG5 of USA.The biochemical features of the gram-negative bacterial isolate were same with Serratia marcescens.The PCR amplified 16S rDNA of the gram-negative pathogenic bacterium strain was 1 400 bp.It shared 99.0% nucleotide identity with other Serratia marcescens reference strains obtained from GenBank.Animal experiment showed that the gram-negative pathogenic bacterium isolate could cause the mice to die.The drug sensitivity tests showed all isolates were sensitive to spectinomycin, azithromycin, amikacin, gentamicin and neomycin.It was effective to treat with dexamethasone and spectinomycin.Pathogen analysis and drug treatment showed that the BRDC was caused by Mycoplasma bovis and Serratia marcescens.     

Transmission ecology of rodent‐borne diseases: New frontiers

Rodents are recognized reservoir hosts for many human zoonotic pathogens. The current trends resulting from anthropocene defaunation suggest that in the future they, along with other small mammals, are likely to become the dominant mammals in almost all human‐modified environments. Recent intricate studies on bat‐borne emerging diseases have highlighted that many gaps exist in our understanding of the zoonotic transmission of rodent‐borne pathogens. This has emphasized the need for scientists interested in rodent‐borne diseases to integrate rodent ecology into their analysis of rodent‐borne pathogen transmission in order to identify in more detail the mechanisms of spillover and chains of transmission. Further studies are required to better understand the true impact of rodent abundance and the importance of pathogen sharing and circulation in multi‐host– multi‐pathogen communities. We also need to explore in more depth the roles of generalist and abundant species as the potential links between pathogen‐sharing, co‐infections and disease transmission.     

青蒿中番茄斑萎病毒和烟草花叶病毒的分子鉴定及相关序列分析

番茄斑萎病毒(tomato spotted wilt virus, TSWV)和烟草花叶病毒(tobacco mosaic virus, TMV)是2种重要的植物病原病毒, 对多种经济作物的产量和品质均造成严重影响。2021年-2022年, 在云南省丽江市烟草种植区不同烟区采集叶片黄化、皱缩以及无症状的青蒿Artemisia caruifolia样品共计14份, 利用免疫金标速测卡和RT-PCR对其病原病毒进行检测。利用免疫金标速测卡检测结果显示, 在所检样品中有9份样品检测出TSWV, 检出率为64.28%, 有3份样品检测出TMV, 检出率为21.43%, 2种病毒复合侵染的检出率同样为21.43%;利用RT-PCR对复合侵染的3份样品进行分子检测, 结果显示, 在3份复合侵染青蒿样品中获得3条TSWV N基因序列、3条TMV cp基因序列和2条TMV RdRp部分序列。TSWV青蒿分离物与分离自云南的TSWV-2分离物相似性最高, 为99.6%;TMV青蒿分离物与分离自辽宁的TMV-Shenyang分离物和分离自云南的TMV-Yongren-1相似性最高, 均大于99.4%。这是首次发现TSWV和TMV 2种不同属病毒复合侵染青蒿。     

渝西地区兔球虫病流行情况调查及虫种鉴定

【目的】掌握渝西地区兔球虫病的流行情况和兔球虫种类,为该地区兔球虫病的防治提供依据。 【方法】采用饱和食盐水漂浮法和麦克马斯特氏计数法检测渝西荣昌、永川、大足等 8 个区 14 个兔场共 1 273 份 粪样本,并收集卵囊,鉴定兔球虫种类。【结果】发现 14 个兔场均有感染球虫,平均感染率为 90.65%,璧山 和江津的感染率最高,为 100%,2 月龄以下兔感染率极显著高于 2~4 月龄、4~9 月龄及 9 月龄以上年龄段兔, 感染率为 98.19%。小型养殖场兔球虫感染率极显著低于大型规模化养殖场,感染率为 86.53%。8 个区的克粪便 虫卵数（Oocysts Per Gram,OPG）为 9.65×103 ~6.56×104 ,其中 2~4 月龄 OPG 最高、为 6.31×104 。对药物使 用情况调查显示,未使用球虫药养殖场的感染率为 92.31%,OPG 为 4.42×104 ; 使用球虫药养殖场的感染率为 89.19%,OPG 为 2.75×104 。在 14 个兔场共鉴定了 10 种艾美耳球虫,其中优势虫种为穿孔艾美耳球虫（Eimeria perforans）、大型艾美耳球虫（E. magna）、盲肠艾美耳球虫（E. coecicola）和中型艾美耳球虫（E. media）, 检出率分别为 25.20%、23.38%、11.96%、10.02%。【结论】渝西地区普遍感染兔球虫,且多为混合感染,因此 应加强该地区兔球虫病的防治。     

鲤病毒病原的感染性测定

为查明养殖鲤（Cyprinus carpio）突然大批发病死亡的原因，对鲤病样品进行了细胞攻毒、空斑测定、电镜观察，以及鱼体感染等实验。先以患病鲤的组织匀浆液，经过滤后，分别接种到草鱼鳍条细胞（GCF）、鲤上皮瘤细胞（EPC）等14种培养细胞中。利用倒置显微镜观察显示，在1-2d内，该病鱼组织匀浆液可使其中9种细胞出现典型的细胞病变。收集出现病变的细胞液（即病毒悬液），进一步进行病毒滴度检测、空斑测定和鱼体感染实验。结果显示，在GCF细胞上的病毒滴度为10^7.3TCID50／mL；在FHM，TSB和GCO等细胞中可产生直径1～4mm的圆形空斑，空斑的大小与宿主细胞的种类和接种的病毒浓度有关。通过对感染细胞制备的超薄切片和病毒负染样品进行电镜观察，显示这是一类呈典型子弹头样的弹状病毒颗粒。感染了病毒悬液的鲫和鲤先后在第2天和第3天开始出现病症，间隔1～2d后发病的鱼开始死亡，至第14天，两种感染鱼的死亡率均达到83．3％。收集人工感染后濒死的鲫和鲤，分别制备组织匀浆液，回接感染鱼类培养细胞，24h内能使其出现与原发病鲤组织匀浆液所引起的类似的细胞病变。因此证实患病鲤是由病毒病原感染所致。[中国水产科学，2006，13（4）：617—623]     

Short-term baths with essential oils of Lippia sidoides,Ocimum gratissimum and Zingiber officinale influence blood parameters and survival of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) after infection with Aeromonas hydrophila

This study evaluated the effect of short-term baths with the essential oils (EOs) of Lippia sidoides, Ocimum gratissimum and Zingiber officinale on the survival, haematological, biochemical and histopathological parameters of native fish tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila. After challenge, the fish infected with A. hydrophila received therapeutic baths of 60 min, for five consecutive days. Treatments were as follows: challenged and not treated; challenged and treated with 10 mg L^?1 of gentamicin; challenged and treated with EO of L. sidoides (2.5 and 5.0 mg L^?1); challenged and treated with EO of O. gratissimum (5.0 and 10.0 mg L^?1); challenged and treated with Z. officinale EO (5.0 and 10.0 mg L^?1). The highest survival rates were 89.5% (fish treated with 5.0 mg L^?1 of O. gratissimum EO) and 75.0% (fish treated with 5.0 mg L^?1 of L. sidoides EO). Reductions in the haematocrit percentage, haemoglobin and erythrocyte number were observed in fish treated with L. sidoides and Z. officinale EOs compared with control fish. Mild to moderate damage to the liver tissue of fish after challenge and EO treatments were observed. It is suggested that baths containing O. gratissimum and L. sidoides EOs consist in a viable treatment to increase survival rates of C. macropomum infected with A. hydrophila.